This is the Audubon Society of Central Arkansas's October monthly meeting.

Register in advance for this meeting--- https://audubon.zoom.us/meeting/register/O0dfBt-TSoaaJF3zo29ZDw

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If it’s bigger than a mite, it probably has mites – and birds are no exception. For over a decade, Arkansas native Alix Matthews has studied the tiny creatures that make their homes on bird feathers. Despite being incredibly common, feather mites are still one of the most mysterious groups of avian symbionts. In this talk, you’ll meet the mites that travel with some of our most colorful migrants, discover how these (and other) tiny hitchhikers can reveal surprising stories about their hosts, and learn more than you’ve ever wanted to know about the hidden life of feathers.

Alix is proudly from North Little Rock, Arkansas. She received her undergraduate degree in Environmental Sciences from Rhodes College, and then her master’s and PhD from Arkansas State University (Biological Sciences and Molecular Biosciences, respectively). She has spent her career studying the relationships between animals and the organisms that live with them, mostly birds and their “endos and ectos,” but also ants and their farmed fungi. Now a postdoctoral researcher at the University at Buffalo in New York, she is investigating how gut microbes influence feather coloration and what role mites may play in birds’ broader ecosystems.

Photo: Sydney Walsh